* * *

For the next few weeks or so we settled into a new routine. The word was out though we hadn’t made any sort of official statement, but it would’ve been hard to miss the looks and the easy touches that passed between us.

There wasn’t much of a scuffle once her handlers got wind of the new relationship, only one little blip from one of the members of her management team. It was the first time I’d seen her in action.

She’d knocked down every argument the asshole had and refused to even contemplate firing me as her bodyguard. Her people refused to not pay me so I told them to donate the shit to charity.

Of course someone leaked the news to the press and I fielded about twenty calls from my team, who all had a lot to say amidst the well wishes. I even let her talk to a couple of the guys who all seemed to know more about her than I did in the beginning.

It was then I learned that my jealousy didn’t just run to the unknown men who were always vying for her attention, but to men that I knew and trusted. I was overly possessive of her time and couldn’t get her off the lot quick enough at the end of each day once she was done.

Since we were no longer a secret we spent a few evenings out on the town, having dinner and even taking in a movie once. I was only a little uneasy at the fact that I hadn’t heard shit from her stalker since the news broke.

Up until then we were averaging one letter or email a day. I knew shit was about to come to a head soon. So even as we sat out on the lanai making plans for the future, my mind was distracted.

It was hard separating the man from the bodyguard. As her man I wanted to take her home behind the protective gates of my home where I knew my state of the art security system was sure to keep everyone out, but she had a job to do.

Then I questioned what the hell I was gonna do if I didn’t draw this guy out soon and she had to go off on location for the upcoming movie she was supposed to work on. And that shit led to our first argument.

“I can’t be there, I have other jobs to take care of.” I’d already spent more time than I’d planned to on this one, but the truth is the guy was good. Each time I pinned down a location the authorities were always ten steps behind. By the time they showed up he was long gone.

Now he was hip to us and had taken to using cafes and shit. Whoever he is, he had an amazing code system that seemed to be tracking us as well. I knew he couldn’t get into my shit, so he had to have eyes on her some other way.

I’d gone back and rechecked everyone in her circle, including the director and producers of the film she was working on, but they all checked out. I was beginning to think more and more that this was someone from her past, but like she said, her ex checked out.

“You don’t have to be there, I do.”

“Don’t be an ass. Do you really think I’m gonna let you go off to…where the hell are they filming again?”

“Nebraska and you’re not ‘letting’ me do anything. This is my work, you’re just gonna have to deal with it.” She went ahead putting the finishing touches on the salad she was making like she didn’t just walk her ass into trouble.

“Is that so? You sure you were listening to me that night? You know, a few weeks ago before I fucked you the first time? I could’ve sworn I told you how this shit works. Now, if you know something that you’re not telling, now would be the perfect time to do it.” And there it was out in the open. My reason for being such a dick to her.

In the last couple weeks I’ve done everything I can to get her to fess up. I was no longer doubtful that she knew or suspected who this person might be. It was the way she reacted whenever it came up. The fear that I sometimes see when the phone rang or someone drove too close.

That in itself is not enough, but the way she relaxes once the call has been answered, or she finally sees the face of the driver of the other car, is a dead giveaway that she’s expecting someone.

“I told you, I don’t know…” She took the salad to the table as a way of escaping.

“I’d rather you didn’t fucking lie to me.”

“And I’d rather you didn’t pick a stupid fight with me just because you want to call it quits.”

Okay that one pulled me the fuck up.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“You think I haven’t noticed that you’ve been distant lately?” Spare me from irrational fucking females.

“Do you mean the nights that you fucking dragged in here after the stunt shit you’d been doing all day on the set? Or do you mean when you fell and hit your ass hard enough that it left a bruise and I brought you home, gave you a bath and put you to bed? Oh and let’s not forget that I held you all night and checked your forehead for fever every fucking hour on the hour.”

“That’s just an excuse, I know all about the way you work.” Now she was in tears and I was wondering if it was her time of the month. It can’t be, I’ve been clocking that shit and she hasn’t had a period since I came on board, which means she’s late.

I’ve been stressing about that shit too with a madman on her ass and feeling like shit because I haven’t been able to make her safe.

“Do tell. How exactly do I work?” She stormed out of the room and into her bedroom that she hasn’t used in weeks. I was tempted to go after her but figured we could both use some time to calm the fuck down.

I needn’t have bothered because she was soon back with her phone in hand. She scrolled through some shit and then held it out to me.

“What am I looking at?”

“That’s your girlfriend. She sent me that two days ago. Do you see where she’s blaming me for stealing you away from her, calling me a slut and threatening to go to the tabloids?” I read the words and wondered if I’d fallen down the rabbit hole.

“So let me get this straight. The same person who’s accusing me of being a man whore is telling you how much in love we were and how you’ve destroyed her future with the man she claims uses women like Kleenex.”

I let her absorb that shit for a second. “How did she get your number anyway?”

“She didn’t, she sent me a DM on twitter.” Her voice had lost some of its steam.

“Two days ago and you didn’t say shit to me. You sure do love your secrets.” I went back to plating our food so I didn’t give in to the temptation to wring her damn neck.

“It wasn’t a secret. What was I supposed to say?”

“I don’t know, the truth? You know I’ve been operating under the illusion that you’re an innocent little thing who only puts on this façade for the cameras, but I’m beginning to think I might be wrong.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means that you’re a sneak.” If her mouth dropped any farther it’d hit her chest. Now it was I who walked away and sat down at the table.

Don’t ask me why the fuck I’m so pissed. I haven’t had her in two days. One because she was tired and two because she’d hurt herself the day before.

Just because she was out of commission didn’t mean that I didn’t want her and the shit was irritating the fuck outta me. I’ve gone days, weeks without pussy before, now it felt like I was slowly dying because I hadn’t been inside her in the past forty-eight hours.

She plopped her ass down in the chair farthest away from me and that was the last fucking straw. “Get your ass over here.” I kicked her usual chair out from the table and glared at her stubborn ass. She didn’t move and her eyes widened when I stood from my chair and went after her.

“Don’t you dare.”

I ignored her ass and picked her and her plate up before plunking her down where I wanted her, in the seat next to me.

“Sit your ass there and eat and don’t say another fucking word cause you’re only going to annoy me.” She folded her arms and refused to eat and I dug into my steak and ignored her annoying ass.

As long as she stayed where the fuck I put her we were straight. “Stop pouting, you’ll spoil my dinner.” Now I was just fucking with her. She’s entirely too cute when she gets her dander up.

She threw a tomato wedge at me and it hit me in the forehead before dropping onto my plate. Did I really think she was sweet and amiable? I growled at her and the ass started laughing.

“You can’t laugh at my manly man growl.” That sent her into fits of hysterics. I had to pull her back on the chair when she almost fell off she was laughing so hard.

“Damn baby, even your fights are sexy.” And just like that it was over. She did still try to bite me when I went for her mouth but it wasn’t long before she was sitting in my lap.

“I don’t want to feel like the other woman. That’s the kind of stuff that can ruin your career.”

“You’re not and it won’t. I’ll take care of it.”

I hadn’t given Zeta a second thought since I got tangled up with my girl. Silly me, I thought our last and final conversation had taken care of that. I didn’t know what she was playing at, contacting Tara like that, and my guys hadn’t mentioned anything about seeing her so it was anybody’s guess what the fuck was going on with her.

“So, you get kinda grumpy when I don’t make love to you huh.” She elbowed me in my gut and stole a piece of my meat.

“Hey, I thought you didn’t want any.” Like every other female in the world she was always on some kind of fucked up diet. This week it was the no meat only rabbit food kick. She chewed and grinned at me with a mouthful of meat.

“I got something else for you to chew on.” She howled and I pushed my hands beneath her to release my cock from my jeans. All this fighting had made me randy as a three-headed goat. She wasn’t laughing when I pushed her off my lap and onto the floor with her head under the table.